Aftermarket Panerai Strap Review

kyRos Leather Straps Review

kyRos Straps #2 Panerai Straps

Origin: Europe
Construction: Hand Stiched Hand Made
Materials: New Leathers
Buckles & Tubes: No Tubes, Standard Buckle Included
Price Range: $95+
Website: Click Here
Date of Review: October 31st, 2017

Welcome to the second review of kyRos Straps from Greece! If you didn't catch the first review I did last year, you check it out here. kyRos continues his passion for quality and flair for style with his latest straps, and continues to impress with his attention to details when recreating vintage style straps.

This particular strap from kyRos is called the Vathy, and ranks up there with the best straps I've had the pleasure to wear and review. The Vathy is constructed of top quality premium vintage-colored orangey-brown cowhide. Let's see more of it.

First let's look at the top quality Elias buckle that is on this bad boy. This one has a distressed brass finish on it, and is the knife edge style, which is totally bad ass. I love this buckle and how its hand-finished and distressed - pretty much the nicest replica buckles money can buy. The combination of steel and brass gives it a two-tone sort of look to it making it work equally with Brass watches as well as Stainless ones. Very cool.

Now let's get a better look at the beautiful premium leather that kyRos uses - I call it brown, but kyRos says that it is more specifically an orangey-tan, staying true to colors used in Vintage Panerai straps. This is fantastic stuff... beautiful natural leather smell. You can always get an idea of the quality of the leather by the smell of it. As before, he only uses top quality linen thread in the construction of his straps. Matching Brown color stitching on this one that looks fantastic with the matching brown leather - makes this strap in particular look a bit more discreet, and allows you to appreciate the hand-distressing and coloring of the leather a bit.

kyRos likes to build his straps the traditional way, with multi-layer techniques reminiscent of the historical Panerai straps of yore. This takes much more time and effort and the results are superior as evidenced by the photos. The strap looks fantastic, and the superior leathers and constructions results in a multi-layered strap that is both robust, yet very flexible and comfortable on the wrist. This is an important factor to consider when buying straps. Many straps out there can be very robust and pretty, but sometimes they are too rigid and uncomfortable. While I sometimes don't mind wearing rigid straps because they have their place in my collection too, I think overall it is preferable for straps to be softer and more comfortable.

There's a look at the back of the strap. I was going to complain about the knot tie-off for the stitching, but after discussing it with kyRos, he explained the reason for the knot was because he was staying true to the original vintage strap construction techniques, which is admirable. The only probablem I have with knots that stick out is that sometimes it can irritate the skin on my wrist - but kyRos has does his best to minimize that by making the knot as flat as possible. There was no visible knot in the first strap (The Oblivion) I got from kyRos, because that watch was not from the DNA line, which attempts to replicate vintage watch strap construction down to the smallest details.

Overall this is a killer strap, and looks fantastic. One of the best values out there for vintage style Panerai straps, with an option for Elias buckles which is always nice. I personally will always go for the Elias buckles if they're offered, they're just too good to pass up. Highly recommended if you're looking for top-notch distressed or vintage style construction at a good value, with personalized service from Europe.

Model: The Vathy
Thickness: 4mm
Length: 130/80mm
Keeper Type: 1 Fixed, 1 Floating
Stitch Color: Orangey-Tannish-Brown
Edge Finish: Light Burnish
Price: $210.00 USD As shown including Elias Buckle